Homemade by Homefront
The home studio that shoots for fun!
Find out more; find me at Facebook and Linkedin.
Q. What's your day job?
I qualified as a chartered surveyor in the general practice division in 1998. Since qualifying, I have undertaken a variety of work, including valuations of both commercial and residential property for loan security purposes and valuations in connection with probate and matrimonial proceedings. I have prepared reports for court acting as an expert witness. I negotiate rent reviews and lease renewals and manage commercial and residential property for clients.
I act on behalf of banks and building societies, property investment companies, developers, other professional advisors such as solicitors and accountants and property owners. I follow RICS regulations with respect of continuing professional development.
Q. What are your other interests?
I love outdoor adventure. I have walked the Three Peaks and back packed the Coast to Coast. I have cycled the Trans Pennine Trail and toured on my bike Northern Ireland, the Lake District and the North East of England. I enjoy cruising and I am qualified to Day Skipper (Royal Yachting Association) and in theory only to Yacht Master. I have cruised in the Mediterranean and the Irish Sea. I am qualified to scuba dive (PADI advanced open water). I have explored reefs and wrecks in the Red Sea including a night dive of SS Thistlegorm. I have surfed in Biarritz and paddled grade 3 white water in Scotland and the Lake District. I enjoy skiing, the breathtaking beauty and grandeur of the Alps and the exhilaration of bashing mogul fields.
Q. What inspired you to take up photography as a hobby?
My mum has always taken pictures of our family. She was making albums from scarp books before I was born.
I first became interested in photography around the age of 15. My father taught my how to print colour images in our home made dark room in the loft. It was messy and expensive. We used 35mm film and an Olympus OM2 camera and Jobo darkroom equipment.
Since those early days technology has developed very quickly. The World Wide Web is now used daily by most people in the developed world, cameras and computers are relatively cheap and powerful image enhancement and manipulation software offer infinite creative possibilities.
I love to experiment and for me the digital revolution has been liberating and an inspiration.
I have found the more I experiment, (as it costs nothing to experiment with digital files) the more my photographic skills improve.
The only problem I find is that often I work well past midnight “tweaking” images. Once I start I just can’t stop. My wife things I’m nuts.
Q. What type of photography interests you most?
Portraits and in particular black and white candid shots which reveal something meaningful about the person. Special moments last for just fractions of a second, Timing is everything.
Q. What’s your kit?
I helped 2 graduate surveyors pass there assessment of professional competence to progress to full members of the RICS. For my effort Nobletts Chartered Surveyors (our family firm) rewarded me with a Nikon D200 with 17-55mm f2.8 lens. I now also have a SB-800 speed light, a Manfrotto tripod and Nikons 70 – 200 mm VR f2.8 zoom. I have a stand for the flash and a reflector (silver and white) for when I am shooting portraits.
At my home studio I have a Dell quad core PC with dual display. Most images are “tweaked” using Abode Lightroom.
Q. Best bit of kit?
The D200’s interface (controls, dials, menus etc) is very well thought out. It just works (although it has taken me about 2 years to understand and appreciate all the controls).
Q. Worst bit of kit?
Distortion at the wide end of my 17-55mm lens. Also I find the lens lacks sharpness at apertures wider than around f4 (the lens will go as wide as f2.8). Noise on the D200 at high ISO’s (say above ISO 400) can damage an otherwise great image.
Q. How do you print your photos?
For prints I normally use www.loxleycolour.com. Standard photographs take about 1 week to arrive from order.
For photo books I use www.myphotobook.co.uk. Photo books take around 3 weeks to arrive from order.
Q. What next?
All my photography is self taught mostly through trail and error and reading books and magazines. I want to develop my skills as a photographer and I find the more I practice the better I get. I’m always on the look out for new and interesting opportunities to shoot images. It might be a friends wedding, a company promotion, family get together or holiday adventure, landscapes in the lakes or fun on the beach. I'm not a pro so I don’t offer any guarantees. I just promise to give 100% effort to each assignment.
My favourite magazine is currently "Digital camera". I have recently read Michelle Turner "A Fresh Approach to Shooting Modern Nuptials" and Seth Resnick "Workflow Not Workslow in Lightroom 2".
Q. Do you charge for your pictures?
No. I shoot only for the challenge and reward of taking meaningful images. The images I take remain mine to use as I please. They cannot be used by others without my permission which I usually give without any charge. Homefront is my hobby not my business.
Q. Why Homefront?
When I returned home from University I was employed by my father in the family estate agency business, “Noblett Cuddy”. At the same time (mid 1990’s) the digital revolution and the World Wide Web created both opportunities and threats. We decide to embrace the technology. Paul “bagged” a number of useful domain names, (including www.homefront.co.uk), and we bought our first digital camera, a Kodak with 1 million pixels.
We briefly used the name Homefront to market our estate agency business. Following the sale of the estate agency chain circa 2005 the Homefront brand was made redundant. For a few years the domain name lay dormant.
When deciding to build a web site for our images we thought it would be a good idea to breathe new life into the brand. The site attracts millions of hits and we like the catchy/cheesy name.
Our slogan reinforces our purpose. “Homemade at Homefront, the home studio that shoots for fun!”
Find out more; find me at Facebook and Linkedin.